Dec 12, 2011

What you missed: Honey ham, properly cooked green beans, mashed potatoes, a salad with mixed greens and feta in a vinaigrette, and a white cake with chocolate frosting.

Former Rotarian and infrequent visitor Ron Pilleggi was picked by our fearless leader to do the flag salute. Dan Heinen gave the invocation.

Members of the EHS Limited Edition Choir

Young people in black pants, maroon vests and at least in one case, white spats, were sprinkled about the room. I didn’t even know they made spats anymore. Maybe they are coming back. They were the Limited Edition, the elite singing group from Eureka High School, led by Mr. Young, the gregarious music teacher. They were first up, because they had to get back to school, and sung such favorites as “What Child is This” Let it Snow, I’ll be home for Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock”.

Matthew Owen’s daughter Molly sang a solo. They followed with the humorous “Twelve Days After Christmas” which included the slow strangulation of two turtle doves. Mr. Young announced that the group was going to Fullerton in March to attend the vocal jazz festival there. Additional funding would be nice. He’d like to send them to France or Italy next year. I’d like to go too. They ended with my personal favorite “Carol of the Bells” which, as we all know, is about a hunchback named Carol who is confined to the bell tower of Notre Dame. The football team rescues her at the end of the song. It was rousing.

Recognitions included Matthew Owen for his daughter’s solo, John Bradley for his 45th anniversary, and Wayne Wilson for his 57th. Our exchange student from Brazil gave a glowing report of the truckers’ parade, which we then recognized Brian Papstein for, who in turn singled out Dale Warmuth, whose efforts on behalf of the Boys and Girls Club were rewarded by the proceeds from the Parade being donated to the teen center.

Bob Robinson, new varsity basketball coach at EHS came to the podium to accept a $2,000 check to sponsor the Logger Classic.

Steve Justus then gave a very thorough five-minute introduction to our newest Paul Harris Fellow Stephanie Rupp Haley. She is Bruce Rupp’s daughter.

Matthew Owen was then asked to stand once again because he helped Wells Fargo Bank dole out $10,000 to local teachers. His wife Virginia Bass was just appointed chair of the board of Supervisors.

In a remarkable milestone Greg Pierson managed to become the first president ever to have Limited Edition as his program and fail to let the club out early. This just in: spell check has revealed the true names of the following: Greg Piercing, Ron Pillage, Dan Heifer, Matthew Oxen, Dale Warmth, and Brian Pap stein. The name “Rupp” passed inspection.

What you missed if you didn’t go: Chicken Fricassee , a salad with frozen cucumbers in it, black beans and rice (whose proteins complement each other) and a moist brownie with nuts. The president has a tendency to speak in a low soft voice and mumble, but only Jim Howard has the courage to bring it up, so for the sake of the narrative, we will be using “MMM” for the names we couldn’t hear.

MMM led us in the pledge. Ryan Fray then gave the invocation. It was short, like the person standing next to him.

Our Prez introduced MMM and MMM, who had provided musical accompaniment to our lunch. Greg announced that Jim Howard was 96 or 97, and that the fire marshal had put a stop order on the cake. He then revealed a brazen theft: Jim’s Birthday Hammer had been purloined by the Southwest Club. Photos showed Nancy Kay with the stolen object. No action was taken because we all know you don’t need a tool to get hammered.

Kim Bauriedel came up to announce once again that he hadn’t been chosen to be District Governor, and that instead, they picked MMM from another more southerly club.

Carlton Nielsen then said something about “guests from our Russian Clubs.” And then wandered away.

Mike Cunningham reminded us that the Rotary Christmas party will be held at the Ingomar Club on Friday 12/16. Attire is business casual.

MMM (Aaron Tilch?) gave his craft talk. It started out well. He’s an outdoors person, loves fishing, builds and restores cars…then he mentioned the goats. Apparently he has goats that come with him on camping trips and carry all his stuff. He scoffed at horses and mules and sung the praises of his loyal companions. They don’t wander off, except occasionally into the belly of a Grizzly. He also mentioned that the Coast Guard saved his life, which would have been a great transition to our program. But no.

Sally Arnot announced that Humboldt Arts Council’s historical building ornament for 2011 was The Shanty, a fixture in Old Town for the rougher crowd. Or maybe it was the Eureka Bank.

Did they have topless dancing?

On to recognition. Jim Howard won $1400 at a local casino. Ryan Fray went to Hawaii. John Fullerton went to Las Vegas. The raffle happened then we went to the program.

Captain MMM (aka CMDR Fuller)commands 250 Coasties in our area. Or maybe he doesn’t , but we know he flies a helicopter at least twice a week. Flying a helicopter costs $3500 an hour. If they crash it we’re out 7,000,000. They cover 250 nautical miles of coastal border. ( A nautical mile is 6076 feet –796 feet longer than a terrestrial mile) Our speaker’s most interesting insights involved a 9 month tour of the Gulf. They were sent into a war zone with no weapons and asked to fly around in a day-glow orange helicopter. They spent most of their time trying to get used to how the Navy did things. Then we all went outside to watch a search and rescue demonstration in the bay in front of the Wharfinger. A frogman went for a dip and rescued a dummy. Certainly that was worth $3500.

Next week, if our president continues to mumble, we will insert “Alas, I ate an Aardvark” for any sentences we can’t hear. The meeting may make more sense than usual.

Respectfully Submitted,

Hank Ingham

Our lovely exchange students Marina (Brazil) & Tonja (Norway).

Rotary guest, Ms. Mindy Bussman

Student guests from Eureka High School

Lovely jazz music was provided by Jack Thomas & Austin Schmaltz. These young men are available to perform at your next event~

Nov 29, 2011

Meeting of the Rotary Club of EurekaNovember 28, 2011

Pledge

Chuck Ellsworth

Invocation

Ron Pierre

Visiting Rotarians

Jill Hanson from Old Town

Christmas Party

The club has reserved the Ingomar Club for the night of December 16th for our annual Holiday Party. No-host cocktails start at 5pm, with dinner starting at 6pm. Eureka High's Limited Edition Choir will perform at 6:45pm. For reservations, please contact Mike Cunningham at 441.1111.

Other Business

Greg Gardiner spoke about the need for more support for Toys For Tots. Times are tough and sponsors have been reducing their donations. On a good note, Rotaract members collected 600 toys over the weekend.

Recognitions

Diane Cipperley was recognized for her son’s recent wedding and for her retirement from Humboldt Area Foundation at the end of the year.

Dave Dillon went to Hawaii and then was given the option of waiving the fine for performing a hula. Let’s just say that the entire group was relieved when he opted to pay the fine instead.

Jim Hunter has celebrated 5 years at his Eureka location.

Gary Phelp went to the Hawaii with the family for a week.

Ziggy Ziegenfuss went to Santa Cruz with a side trip to Boston.

President Greg Pierson was caught slipping the fact that he went to the Boston area for Thanksgiving. This prompted Past President Bert Campton to fine President Greg $50.00 for Polio Plus. President Greg in return pointed out that Past President Bert Campton went to Palm Springs for a Rotary meeting, but he was not fined since it was official Rotary business.

Guest Speaker

Eric Bergel gave a speech about the current Youth Exchange program and then introduced our speaker Marina, our inbound exchange student from Brazil. She ran a PowerPoint presentation about Brazil.

Dennis Hunter introduced his guest Danielle Tegarden from Coast Central Credit Union and was promptly fined $10.00 for advertising for CCCU. He then was fined another $10.00 for saying this advertising was cheaper than on KINS.

Carlton Nielson brought Christen Jones as a visitor.

New Members

Carlton sponsored two new members Tim Jones and Brad Gibson who were introduced into the club.

Christmas Party

The club has reserved the Ingomar Club for the night of December 16th for our annual Holiday Party. No-host cocktails start at 5pm, with dinner starting at 6pm. Eureka High's Limited Edition Choir will perform at 6:45pm. For reservations, please contact Mike Cunningham at 441.1111.

Other Business

Assistant GovernorBert Campton talked about the foundation fund. Steve Justus talked about the current status of revenue generation. Alice Birney School presented the club with thank you cards and art work for our work on Backpacks for Kids.

Auction

Many items were auctioned out of the Rotary archive such as the stool used by President Greg Pierson in order to be seen by the crowd, which of course was bought by our next President-in-waiting Nancy Dean. Baseballs from a previous president were bought by Carlton Nielson and Greg Seiler.

Next was the Rotary bell from the Southwest Eureka club. It was promptly auctioned off to Nancy Kay who was in attendance from Southwest, but John Harper stepped in and paid the auction price for Southwest as a token of goodwill.

Recognitions

Brian Papstein was recognized for taking KINS to FM 106.3.

Larona Farnum went to Cabo and took her youngest granddaughter to Disneyland.

Bruce Emad traveled to Italy for two weeks.

John Harper bought himself a new Chrysler 300 before quitting his job and starting his own business.

Guest Speaker

Will Kay introduced our speaker Public Defender Kevin Robinson.

He spoke on the many aspects of the Public Defender’s office than many people do not know about. They represent people in the justice system that may be charged with crimes, incarcerated and in the mental institutions. The option of having an appointed public defender is a relative new right for people not accused of capital offenses. Before 1963 the option of a public defender was not offered.

Backpacks For Kids

Backpack assembly is held during the school year at 4:00pm on Thursdays at Humboldt Moving & Storage on Albee Street in Eureka, between 14th & 15th Streets. For more information, please contact Mindy Bussman.